Family Concerns

As a youngster you probably paid little attention to a vision correction that fixed both distance vision and near vision. Unfortunately, once you pass the age of 40 your vision correction takes a front seat to what you can and can not enjoy.

One of the big factors that most overlook is vision as it relates to hobbies. I would like to list a couple popular hobbies and outline the possible visual demands and what type of vision correction may be necessary.

For starters, let’s quickly go over why vision correction becomes important again after the young age of forty. It is at that time in life when eyes lose the ability to adjust focus from up distance to up close. This happens to everybody and there is really no way to elude it. The issue is named presbyopia - reading glasses, and is a natural progression of our eyes.

Because presbyopia affects the eyes ability to adjust focus, a single vision correction can easily be utilized with contact lenses, glasses, or refractive surgery. The challenge comes in when a person wants to see clearly in the distance, and then be able to look at an object close up and see them both clearly without changing their contact lenses or putting on another pair of eyeglasses.

On to the hobbies: a popular hobby today is photography. With photography, especially digital photography, a person’s visual demands are great at both distance and near. The most obvious solution is clear distance vision and a pair of convenient reading glasses, much like the clics that are close by when you need them.

If this setup is not satisfactory to some hobby photographers, a pair of mulitifocal contact lenses fit as a modified monovision is a great solution. This means that the eye used through the viewfinder is wearing a distance correcting contact lens with a small bifocal add power for a slight improvement in reading. The other eye is slightly undercorrected for distance and has a marginally greater reading add. With two eyes vision will be good all around and the hobby photographer will be able to see all the details on the camera as well as the subject in the distance.

Hobby computer users do not have as great near vision demands as they think. The computer screen is usually about 2 feet away from their eyes, and this falls into intermediate distance. Simply wearing regular contacts and a pair of reading glasses is the best solution. However, for those that do not want this type of correction a properly fit pair of multifocal contact lenses will also do the trick.

For hobbies that entail all up close and intermediate vision, the opposite of computer vision correction can be done. Musicians want to see their instruments and the details of the sheet music. The compromise in distance vision is usually acceptable. So under correct the distance slightly and wear a finely fit pair of multifocal contact lenses for good intermediate and near vision.
Next time you are visiting your eye care provider, be sure to bring up your hobbies and realistic visual demands. It will make everybody a lot happier a lot sooner if honesty and real expectations are used. Hobbies are activities that we all enjoy doing. Let’s keep it that way and not let a pesky little thing like presbyopia get in our way.